Forum: Author Hangout

Mark-up centering

I was formatting some chapters for eventually posting of an as-yet unfinished story, and ran across the following problem. I want to center a quote at the start of certain chapters (on the section breaks in the published books).

Ernest, I'm glad you're using CSS style sheets, but just be aware that SOL ignores any CSS or Style format commands, reducing all < p > commands to a simple text input. So you're correct to hardcode the html commands.

But I was specifically asking about the SOL specific mark-up commands, since Lazeez has stressed it's easier for him to process < p align=center > commands using the {c} markup command. However, I'm unsure how to use it for multiple line centering.

Here's a sample of when i did it with the tagged text - but, {br}{br} doesn't work in too well:

According to Lazeez, a single {br} is ignored (i.e. it's cosmetic for the author only), while using two results in only a single linebreak. But, your example answers my question: I can use multiple lines with a {c} command as opposed to requiring multiple {c} commands.

By the way, if you ever want to discuss the specifics of CSS Style commands in either html or ebooks (where it's easier to specify character widths "em;" rather than distances "0.3in;", contact me and we'll work through what we know.

The last three or four stories were all lodged with html code using the and < br > codes in the same way as above. So I know they work. Life is Change is the first story where I've tried with the style sheets, and had an error to start, but the next chapter going up sometime today (it's in the wizard) has the proper code.

In a way, it's funny, you convince to use html and style sheets, and are now using the tagged text code I'm moving away from.

Two things I did notice with the style sheets are:

1. Nesting must be prefect and in exact order, under the original html it could be mixed and still work so if you open bold then italic you must close italic then bold, etc.

2. a style sheet span will override a normal html command for the same type of code. I do notes in blue italics, and would normally close the italics for something requiring special text, then re-open the italics, to make that work with the style sheet I have to close the span and open a new span - too much hard work.

a single {br} is ignored (i.e. it's cosmetic for the author only), while using two results in only a single linebreak.

I don't know exactly what the tagged text code reason is, but I found out, by experience, if I tried to insert a space by using 2 x br command the paragraph closed and the second half started out as a new paragraph aligned left. While a single br command works as a line-break.

the other thing is with the tagged text you don't need to close the paragraph, and blank line will do that for you.

If you want larger examples say so and I'll send you the full file of some of my stories that are tagged text coded - if you state which story has the examples you want, I'll send that story in the tagged text.

Yes, that would work. You don't need the < /p> tag to close. It's closed automatically.

Again {c}Line 1< br>Line 2< br>Line 3 would indeed result in three centred lines with a line break between. Any 2 consecutive < br> breaks would be replaced with a < /p>\n\n< p> (paragraph break) and you would lose the centring. (\n is a new line character - one tap on your return key).

2. a style sheet span will override a normal html command for the same type of code. I do notes in blue italics, and would normally close the italics for something requiring special text, then re-open the italics, to make that work with the style sheet I have to close the span and open a new span - too much hard work.

I always start with a clean slate in my Style Sheet/CSS commands by executing the following command:

Any 2 consecutive < br> breaks would be replaced with a < /p>nn< p> (paragraph break) and you would lose the centring.

Ah, I didn't see the connection to my own work when Ernest said it, but I try to set off the source from the quoted text, so in that case, I would need another {c> line.

Ernest, one reason why I moved away from the < p align="center"> command is because I've been playing around with removing all my < p class=MsoNormal> commands, replacing them with a redefined < p >, but alas, that screws up the centering. That's not a problem in my books/website, because I use a "Centered" Style, but that doesn't work when I submit the file to SOL.

CW, you can see on my first post how extensive my style sheet is, six styles and I don't use the .b much. I do include the standard html commands for headings and some extra < i> < b > < blockquote > and < font > commands in some special situations, but that's all I use, now.

No, that's perfectly OK. the issue for CW and me is we prefer a little tighter control on how the finished product displays, so we try to have it all very finally coded and tuned for the SoL wizard to manage that. Then, when you add in we also prepare our stories to be available as e-books and on other sites we often talk about how to prepare the code so it needs the minimal change for the other sites.

The standard SoL wizard process will give a good display, but I'm a bit picky about how I want some parts to show, so is CW, so we work at having them show that way.

Have you established what the difference is? Is it redefining the common SOL elements (since I either introduce new elements ("Indent" or "Centered") or name specific styles), or am I missing something else.

For instance, in my books, I have the first line of each new section (new chapters or new sections) begin with the first line non-indented. I can see how redefining the < blockquote> could produce the properly indented text, but I don't suppose there's anyway to achieve my first-line non-indent?

I no longer use blockquote on SoL because it has a specific layout for it I don't like, so I gave up on that - and now concentrate on using the colour to differentiate for it. I've not yet worked out a way to do the indentation on SoL, but the style sheet code in my first response is the full style sheet listing. Initially I use .c not .center, but that had issues. I also sometimes use the < b > command still, too, although I shouldn't. I'm still learning this by trial and error.

I am aware that you can include a lot more in the style sheet than I do, but what can work at SoL is still limited to the same options as show in the tagged text, just the style sheet is an easier way of marking it, is all. Thus the options for blue, red, green work, but yellow and purple wouldn't work at SoL while they'd work on a normal web page.

If something isn't specifically listed in the site's tagging guide, and there is nothing similar in the stories' stylesheet, then there is no way to do it. There is no text indent in the stories stylesheet except for blockquote. So, you can't do it.

If something isn't specifically listed in the site's tagging guide, and there is nothing similar in the stories' stylesheet, then there is no way to do it. There is no text indent in the stories stylesheet except for blockquote. So, you can't do it.

I kind of figure that was the case. It's because I couldn't see anything on the guides you have that I've not tried any code , because I couldn't see how to do it.